Sunderland DASH
Zero emission last mile delivery service with e-Taxis and rapid chargers

About Sunderland City Council

Sunderland City Council is the Local Authority of the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England, which provides the majority of local government services. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in Tyne and Wear and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England.

In a drive to improve air quality, reduce congestion in the city, and move towards becoming a smart city, the council is involved with an innovative and exciting project in order to start achieving these aims.

The Project

Electric Blue, in partnership with Grid Smarter Cities, is working with Sunderland City Council to introduce a last mile delivery service powered by electric vehicles (EVs), therefore helping to reduce emissions in built up residential areas.

Delivery as A Service to the High street (DASH) is an initiative to introduce a zero-emission last mile delivery service. It is being piloted by Sunderland City Council as an Innovate funded project, run by Grid Smarter Cities. Other members of the project consortium are Gnewt Cargo, IBM and Hodos Media.

The initiative has two main branches of provision. Firstly, to provide residents with click-and-collect and delivery services from small businesses in Sunderland, beginning with market traders. For example: an office orders fresh produce to be delivered the next day. The delivery is performed by one of the DASH electric vans or electric taxis (e-Taxis).

Secondly, to reduce emissions within the city centre, HGVs will stop outside of the city zone to transfer goods to EVs, for their last mile of delivery.

Our Solution

Electric Blue delivered rapid charger infrastructure to support e-Taxis and electric vans, and will be providing ongoing support with the supply and operation of EVs. The chargers are powered with 100% renewable energy, as are all Electric Blue chargers.

Paul Walsh, Sales and Marketing Director for Electric Blue, commented “We are delighted to be working with Grid to make sure that zero-emission technology is part of the Smart City solution.”

“We are really excited about this project in my home city, which is demonstrating the benefit of not only using zero carbon vehicles to facilitate last mile deliveries, it is also creating the ability for local traders to opt-in to a home delivery service, allowing them to have a digital presence across the city. It is important, as Grid showcases its simple smart solutions internationally, that technology can be an enabler for cities such as Sunderland, benefitting traders, residents and the environment.”
Neil Herron (Founder and CEO, Grid)

Next steps

Trials for the DASH initiative will start in November 2018. We are actively working with Sunderland City Council to support other EV projects.